I have just realised that I didn't journal this book when it arrived - I'm sorry about that! It's taken me a while to read it and I think my boyfriend is currently halfway through it so I'll check if he plans to finish it and then PM the next in line. I'm glad this is a leisurely ray!

A Passage to India was published in 1924, as India stood on the threshold of great changes. The portrait it paints of Anglo-India (the British in India) is quite damning and the portrayal of the Indians is not especially flattering either. The Brits were nearly all close-minded snobs and the natives were overly emotional and inclined to value form and courtesy over truth and genuine compassion.

I felt claustrophobic reading this novel as if I were forced to choose between the tiresome and confined world of the Anglo-Indians or the grinding poverty and daily humiliation of the Indians. There was no sense of openness or freedom; everything seemed narrow and closed.

To be completely honest, I found this book a hard slog. I didn't find any of the characters especially sympathetic, the plot was hardly gripping and the device of Adela's psychological condition after the incident in the caves felt contrived and untrue. The novel covers rich thematic territory but without the emotional engagement it all felt a bit abstract.

I know Forster is rated very highly and I would be willing to try again with some of his other novels such as Howard's End or A Room with a View. I am not saying that A Passage to India is a bad novel and indeed I can see why others might like it. However, it is my personal response to literature that matters to me and ultimately this novel neither moved nor interested me.

I read this as part of my list of top 100 books of the 20th century - see www.bookcentury.blogspot.com.

I'm terribly sorry that I have kept this book so long. I didn't expect 'as long as necessary' to be four months. My boyfriend is halfway through the book but seems to have lost interest. If he doesn't pick it up and finish it this week, I will post it on anyway.